Seal rings in integrated circuits are used to protect integrated circuits during a dicing (die sawing) process by preventing cracks. Seal rings can also serve as a barrier to moisture. However, seal rings can couple noise from external radio frequency signals or internal noise source into the integrated circuit inside via the metal path of the seal rings and impact device performance significantly. Seal rings may provide a noise path on which the noise can travel from noisy area of the circuit to other areas. Also, there is a mutual inductance issue arising from induced current along the seal rings that contributes to the noise.
For broken seal rings, moisture can penetrate through the broken spaces causing reliability issues such as early break down. The broken seal rings may not be suitable for extra low-k devices.